Update 7 – What We Know

Edit: The patch notes for Update 7 (on the Public Test Server) are up and you can view a summary and all skills changes here.

Update 7 is on track to be a huge update to Elder Scrolls Online including the new Imperial City DLC zone. We won’t have official patch notes until it goes to the Public Test Server so in the meantime this page will keep track of all information regarding Update 7 sourced from the developers on the forums, Reddit, ESO Live and even some data mining of ESO itself.

Update 7 arrives on PC/Mac on 31 August and XBox/PS4 on 15/16 September!

We can’t be absolutely 100% certain of these changes until they are released to ESO itself, as the developers will be testing them internally and on the PTS which may result in some changes. This page will be kept up to date with those changes once we know of them.

Veteran Rank 16

The level cap in ESO is being raised to Veteran Rank 16 in Update 7.

This means that gear can now be made up to VR16 with new materials which will only be found in the Imperial City. The new materials will not spawn on nodes like other materials in the game but you will need to find items (from monster loot or stealing) and deconstruct them. This will give you materials required to make VR15 and VR16 weapons and armor.

There are also merchants in the Imperial City which sell VR15 and VR16 gear for Tel Var Stones. Tel Var Stones are a new currency for the Imperial City which can be earned through killing daedra and other players. Tel Var Stones can be looted from slain players as well adding a new dynamic to PVP in the Imperial City.

Group Dungeons and Pledges will scale up to Veteran Rank 16.

Brian Wheeler posted this in response to questions about the materials needed to make VR15 and VR16 items.

The new materials are nowhere near as rare or difficult to obtain as Nirnhoned Trait materials. Though you don’t obtain the new materials via crafting nodes, getting them through deconstruction is more comparable to other types of ingots. As you run around the Imperial City killing monsters, you’ll get item drops like you would in a normal overland zone or dungeon. You can then deconstruct those for a chance to get the new materials.

Along with the introduction of Veteran Rank 16 there is going to be an all round reduction in the time it takes to level a Veteran Rank.

The amount of XP it takes to earn a Veteran Rank will be lowered to 850,000, down from 1,000,000.

The amount of XP earned from Veteran Quests, including the new Imperial City quests, has been raised by 50%.

The amount of XP earned from Veteran Public Dungeons has been doubled.

The amount of XP earned from all activities in Craglorn has been raised by 20%.

Veteran XP rewards across the board have been improved.

Imperial City

The Imperial City is a huge PVP and PVE zone in Cyrodiil. There is heaps of information on this expansion on the Imperial City page.

The Imperial City contains the new Xivkyn racial style.

The Imperial City will cost 2500 Crowns from the Crown Store. This zone is the first paid DLC for Elder Scrolls Online.

Access To The City

On the PTS they will be testing different requirements to access the Imperial City. This information comes from BrianWheeler on the forums.

Access granted by owning your native 6 keeps.

Access granted by owning your native 6 keeps and 1 enemy keep.

Access granted by owning the majority of keeps.

The data collected from the PTS will be used to determine which scenario will launch. It is always possible that this will change in the future as well. At the moment it seems like the first choice is most popular with the developers as this is the scenario that is advertised on the Imperial City pages of the official site.

Also note that you can log out and remain in the Imperial City as evidence by Brian Wheeler on the forums.

Once you’re inside IC or the Sewers, you can log out and log back in there to your hearts content, even if you lose access in rule-sets where it’s gated by keep ownership.

This was recently posted to the forums by Brian Wheeler.

There will be safe areas and re-spawn locations for you inside the Sewers as well as the City Districts. Also note the City, Sewers and Cyrodiil are separate zones, but share the same population cap. Prior bugs where sometimes you had to requeue to get back into Cyrodiil from Cracked Wood Cave, or any other cave in Cyrodiil, have been fixed in this update.

Imperial City Dungeons

We know there are two new Group Dungeons – The White Gold Tower and the Imperial City Prison. We also know that once you discover them for the first time you can then enter the dungeon like normal from outside of Cyrodiil. You can also exit Imperial City by going through these Group Dungeons. You won’t gain or lose any Tel Var Stones in here either.

You do have to discover the dungeons first, but after that, you can queue up for them outside of Cyrodiil or the Imperial City.

Imperial City Item Sets

There are 23 new item sets coming to ESO with the Imperial City. These sets will be dropped or crafted inside of the Imperial City but you will be able to trade them with other players.

There will be 3 crafted sets which can be made at specific crafting stations located in districts of the Imperial City.

There will also be 20 new dropped sets. At the moment we don’t know what these are or what they will do. We know that there will be merchants which sell VR15 and VR16 gear in the Imperial City in exchange for Tel Var Stones. This might provide another way to get your hands on some of these new item sets.

Eric Wrobel stated in ESO Live 21 that the developers want to create an even playing field with regards to item sets. At the moment there are a couple of really powerful sets however ZOS want to balance the item sets a bit more. In addition ZOS want to ensure that there is a balance between crafted, dropped and purchased item sets.

Crafted – Set of the Redistributor

5 Items Bonus:
When you are at full health, and cast an ability that would heal yourself, heal an ally within 28 meters. 2 second cool down.

Crafted – Set of the Armor Master

5 Items Bonus:
While you have a Heavy, Medium, or Light Armor Ability slotted, gain an additional X Maximum Health. Additionally, gain X Magicka Regen while you have a Light Armor ability active, X Stamina Regen while you have a Medium Armor ability active, and X Health Regen while you have a Heavy Armor ability active.

Crafted – Set of the Arboretum

5 Items Bonus:
Unknown

Tel Var Stones

You can visit the Tel Var Stones page for even more information including a list of items that you can purchase with the Stones.

Tel Var Stones are a new currency for the Imperial City which can be earned through killing daedra and other players. Tel Var Stones can be looted from slain players as well adding a new dynamic to PVP in the Imperial City.

Here is more info from the forums.

You will have the option of depositing Tel Var Stones into the bank, but there are some minimum restrictions in place. Additionally, you will lose all of the stones on your person when you die in PvP. Both of these exact values are still subject to change as we continue to fine tune the system based on our logs and player feedback.

Skills Changes

There is a lot of balancing going on behind the scenes and therefore a number of changes to skills. The ones that we know about are listed below.

Dragonknight

Nightblade

Shadow Cloak fixes are coming. Attacks like heavy attacks and charges won’t remove invisibility even if they are cast just before you go into stealth. Area of effect attacks will still remove Shadow Cloak.

Sorcerer

Bolt Escape is being changed so that it will cost 50% more if you cast it in a row. This will now stack! So the cost will increase by 50%, then 100%, then 150% and so on.

Lightning Form is going to have a Stamina morph which deals reasonable damage to nearby targets and uses Stamina to cast.

Mage’s Fury execute damage increased by 10%.

Dual Wield

Flying Blade will give Major Brutality which increases Weapon Damage by 20%. This is to bring Dual Wield in line with Rally (2H).

Bow

Volley will have a longer duration.

Alliance War

Vigor will be unlocked at Alliance Level 5.

Racial Passive Changes

There are some slight tweaks to some of the racial passives that we know about. Eric Wrobel stated in ESO Live that larger changes to racial passives might occur when a race change mechanism is added to ESO in the future.

Dodge Roll

Dodge Rolls will cost 33% more Stamina if you perform them in quick succession.

At the moment the developers feel that players can dodge roll too many times in succession as they believe that dodge rolling should be a timed manoeuvre rather than a constant buff.

Block Changes

When you are blocking you will no longer have any Stamina Regeneration. This is a major combat change to reduce block casting (holding down black while attacking).

Potions and Skills will still restore Stamina but your normal Stamina Regen will be nothing.

Eric Wrobel mentioned that internal tests showed that current content (Group Dungeons, Trials, Dragonstar Arena) is going to be possible to complete even with this change. It might take some time to adjust, however, especially for tanks! This change is mostly aimed towards PVP where players would often treat blocking as a constant buff.

Cyrodiil Changes

There are quite a few changes and fixes to Cyrodiil besides the addition of the Imperial City.

Changes To Emperor

You will no longer receive the “former Emperor” buffs if you have a character which has previously been crowned as Emperor. Instead you will have access to all of the Emperor buffs in full while you are actively the Emperor of a Campaign. You won’t have to spend any Skill Points when you become Emperor. If you have spent Skill Points in the Emperor Skill Line then you will be refunded these points to assign elsewhere.

Moving Campaigns

The “travel to player” function used to enter a Cyrodiil is being disabled. You will now be restricted to your Home and Guest Campaigns which can be reassigned by spending Alliance Points. ZOS wants players to reduce movement between Campaigns in order to provide more meaningful fights and battles in the long term. This will also impact players with many characters, however, as they find that they can’t join any Campaign as their other characters have set Home and Guest Campaigns.

To change a Home Campaign it will cost 150,000 Alliance Points.

To change a Home Campaign after the Campaign has finished will cost only 100 Alliance Points.

To change a Guest Campaign it will cost 15,000 Alliance Points.

PVP Buffs Changes

PVP buffs (the buffs that are granted when your Alliance has control of certain things in your Home Campaign) will be restricted to Cyrodiil. This means that while you are in your Home Campaign you will receive the PVP buffs that your Alliance has earned but you will lose them when you travel outside of Cyrodiil. This is another attempt to remove the “buff servers” which currently takes place on some Campaigns.

This also means that PVP does not have as much of an impact on PVE.

Fixes, Tweaks, Improvements

ZOS is reducing the number of line of sight checks that certain abilities perform in order to reduce the lag that some players experience in Cyrodiil. There are also some other behind the scenes fixes in the works.

The Gates which lead to the Elder Scroll Temples of each Alliance are being strengthened (fixed) to prevent players getting over them when they are closed. The Temples themselves are also receiving a protective barrier when the Gates are closed to prevent any players who have managed to get through the closed Gates attacking the Scroll.

This was also posted on the forums back in June.

Players participating in a low population Campaign or as part of an underscoring Alliance will now gain 20% more AP within the Campaign they’re earning that bonus for, instead of 10%. Population polling has also been sped up to apply the underdog/low population bonuses more often; however, this also means they have the opportunity to expire faster.

Campaign Changes

There are some notable changes to some Campaigns and the way that the score is calculated for each Alliance.

Azura’s StarOwnership of keeps, resources, Elder Scrolls, and outposts will generate 1 point each per scoring cycle and last 30 days.

Blackwater Blade (Non Vet)Ownership of keeps, resources, Elder Scrolls, and outposts will generate 1 point each per scoring cycle and last 5 days.

ChillrendKeeps, outposts, and resources will generate zero points. Ownership of Elder Scrolls will generate 1 point per scoring cycle and last 7 days.

HaderusKeeps, outposts, and Elder Scrolls will generate zero points. Ownership of resources will generate 1 point per scoring cycle and last 7 days.

ThornbladeResources, outposts, and Elder Scrolls will generate zero points. Ownership of keeps will generate 1 point per scoring cycle and last 7 days.

All Console Non-Vet CampaignsOwnership of keeps, resources, Elder Scrolls, and outposts will generate 1 point each per scoring cycle and last 5 days.

Taunt Immunity

Taunt immunity will only apply to monsters which are effected by multiple players Taunts.

This means that two players can’t each take turns at Taunting the enemy but will allow a single tank to keep Taunting the enemy over and over with no negative effect. So if only one player is Taunting then the enemy will not become Taunt immune.

Nirnhoned Trait

This trait will only effect the piece of gear that it is on, rather than your total Spell Resistance. This is more of a bug fix than a change. At the moment the Nirnhoned Trait increases your entire Spell Resistance by a percentage however it is supposed to increase the Spell Resistance from individual armor piece.

New Enchantment

On the forums Jessica Folsom suggested that a new Enchantment was being added in Update 7. So far we don’t know any details except that it will only be available in the Imperial City. You can trade it with other players though.

There is one new Enchantment being added to the game with the Imperial City release. Though it will be available only in Imperial City, players can sell it to anyone regardless of whether they have the Imperial City DLC game pack or not.

We’ll have more details about to share about both topics in the next week or two.

Other Notes

These are just bits of info from the forums and ESO Live which do not concern a particular feature of Update 7.

Posted by Brian Wheeler:

We are working on more Trials for the future, just not as a part of Imperial City.

We are discussing various XP gains via PVP but not ready to post about them yet.

At the moment the difficulty for Trials and Dragonstar Arena are remaining as they are.

Update 7 will be downloaded by everyone, even if you are not purchasing the Imperial City DLC as items from the Imperial City can be sold and moved out of the Imperial City zone.

A player who does not have the Imperial City DLC can still purchase the Xivkyn Motif from another player or through a Guild Trader but they can’t find the Motif themselves as it can only be “found” in the Imperial City.

There are plans for PTS events but they will be released when ready.

The “former Emperor” buffs are being removed in Update 7. You will keep the title but lose the buffs.

There will be a notification when you get Perfect Roe from skinning a fish.

You can’t use siege weapons in the Imperial City, though some daedra seem to use them to knock down the wall between the Elven Garden and Noble districts.

The audio and sounds have been improved. The music in combat will grow more intense depending on the number of enemies you are facing.

Some new sounds have been added with Imperial City.

12 Comments

Richard Douglas

Aug 19, 2015

No Stamina Regen while blocking is more of a PVP issue? Well why not fix it there and leave tanks alone… it’s bad enough we do nothing for damage. Why are you trying to make it much harder?

I agree. Of course tank uses blocking constantly. It’s their THING! They could have left that change for PVP only… Not only could we not get anyone killed in Cyrodiil, now staying alive will be impossible too for tanks.

Really hate when companies feel the need to change their product after people have learned ways around what they intended. I understand fixing bugs and cheaters. I understand dlc changes and making it harder to get materials for the new armor, etc. But changing the base of your game after its been played for as long as it has shows me as a customer a disregard to the player who spends his time building a character in this case a tank only to have it rendered pointless. So start a new character is what people will say sorry took me this long to get to Vet Rank 12 don’t think so. Bethesda please don’t be like Bungie constantly changing all that’s good about a game because your opinion is you want it this or that way. Instead try to understand it from the players point of view. PVP is using it as a cheat get it let’s stop that but tanks require that to survive in your dungeons, etc. If nothing else make it so we can block longer and then have the Stamina go but for the most part we can block.

I have spent a lot of time building a v16 tank. Sure I can always find a group, because nobody wants to be the tank. I have a few problems with tank builds, how come I only have 2 taunts as a Nordic tank? How about diversity. Reduce the blocking stamina, what does it matter, tanks hit like wet noodles anyway, where is our edge? That makes us invaluable? People are already saying “we don’t need or want a tank ” for most dungeons. Help the tanks, or there won’t be any in the future